Voice of the People - January 19, 2009

City yard carts aren't voluntary

Please allow me to point out a couple of fallacies and ask a question or two about the City of Rock Hill's mandatory yard cart program.

That, of course would be the first fallacy. The program is voluntary only as much as paying taxes is voluntary, or as much as paying the monthly storm water fee is voluntary. If we do not buy and use the cart, we will be denied, by the city's own admission, a service that we are already paying for as part of our taxes.

That brings me to the next fallacy. In some neighborhoods, if not many neighborhoods in Rock Hill, the carts cannot possibly prevent yard waste from clogging storm drains and, in fact, cannot be placed near the curb. Why? Well, not all neighborhoods in Rock Hill have storm drains, or even curbs.

My question is an offshoot of the second fallacy listed. Since I have been paying a storm water fee every month since I have been in my house, and since I now must pay a "one-time" fee of $45 (plus an additional $60 replacement cost every time a city employee makes my yard cart "unusable") in order to keep the storm drains and curbs in my neighborhood free of yard waste and debris, does this mean that the city is going to provide me with curbs and storm drains, which, in turn, will be kept clear and beautiful by this progressive policy?

Somehow, I doubt it. Why? Because the City Council, the mayor and the city government in general have not shown any interest in the relatively older suburbs in the time I have lived in Rock Hill. These neighborhoods are older ones that have at least two strikes against them in the eyes of city government -- they are away from the downtown area, and they are no longer controlled by neighborhood associations, which were put in place and controlled by the contractors.

C. A. Kirk

Rock Hill

This story was originally published January 19, 2009 at 1:09 AM with the headline "Voice of the People - January 19, 2009."